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Feeding routines and reducing milk intake - how did yours work out?

My LO (R) is 29 weeks, and we've been weaning onto solids since she was 23 weeks. She used to have 4 x 7oz bottles a day, at 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6am. For the past three weeks she's been on solids at 8am, 12pm and 5pm. Now, this feeding schedule means that she is eating every 2hrs and my gut feeling is telling me that this is too often - she never seems hungry, especially for milk. Its a struggle to get milk into her, and I can tell that she's full when she burps and it sounds like a burp from a full tummy IYKWIM. The thought of her being uncomfortable because I'm always trying to get her to eat makes me want to cry!

I need to change this feeding schedule but am struggling for ideas. I've got two options, as I see it:

1) Give all her milk feed an hour before solids (plus bottle in the evening)
OR
2) Give half milk feed, then solids, then rest of milk feed (plus bottle in the evening)

I'd be so grateful for any opinions on my suggestions (my HV likes to tell me where I need to be, not how I can get there)

Now onto reducing milk intake, which is also a concern for me.

How much milk your LO's milk intake reduce by and over what period did it happen? I know that no two babies are the same, I'm just floundering a bit as I don't know what to expect. She's only taken 3oz of her morning bottle for a few weeks so am wondering whether this is the start of her reducing her own milk feeds.

Just when I thought I'd cracked it, I find that starting solids is like establishing newborn feeding all over again!

Aug/Sept 2010 ICSI

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "chillimint" (Dec 30th 2011, 10:36pm)

I think when weaning they need to take about 20oz milk per day so if she's having 7oz bottles 4 times per day that is loads.

Also getting milk into them doesn't just have to be via a bottle. It can be put in food too such as mash, porridge, yoghurts etc so that 20oz milk does include all these things.

I always gave my LO milk an hour before a meal. When she started to click that food filled her and was more tasty she reduced the amount of milk she had herself. She started with 6oz and not much food and it dropped down slowly until I got rid of the dinner time milk and then eventually the afternoon milk and replaced it with a snack of fruit.

Was the 6oz you gave O an hour before her meal much less than the amount you would give her when she was on milk only?

I've known exactly when to feed her for months now, however by trying to get her interested in food, she ends up hungry sometimes, and seems to go "past it". Plus she's really easily distracted, so it can be a battle. I don't think she has "got" the eating thing in the way that you mention, so I'll be patient.

And she seems to prefer shop bought packets of food, rather than my lovingly prepared dishes…but I'll get over that

Nope, she was taking between 6 and 7oz on a normal feed about 4 or 5 times per day before weaning.

I found that giving it an hour before made sure she wasn't hungry and then we sat in the high chair at the kitchen table and ate our meals together. Because she saw me eating she did the same. This helped the distraction thing because she knew what was going to happen when she was put into her high chair.

How are you weaning? Are you doing purees or Baby Led Weaning?

Because I did BLW and a bit of spoon feeding (yoghurt) I kind of left her to it. It did take her a while but she did get it. Now I can't even con her into eating a biscuit when she wants her tea!

Hi, I had this a few weeks ago with my little boy who is now 31 weeks. I like you found he was never hungry enough for his bottles which he used to love. He was originally on 4x8oz and I was throwing away half of nearly every bottle, so I switched to 4x6oz bottles and he still wasnt drinking much some days I struggled to get 14 or 15 oz down him. Next thing I did was drop the mid morning bottle, but increased the others to 8oz, so I was still making him 24oz but in 3 bottles. I moved his lunch forward to 11.30 am, so his routine was 7.30- 8oz and breakfast, 11.30- lunch and water, 2.30/3pm- 8oz, 4.30ish- dinner with water, 7pm- 8oz. This worked a treat and he was drinking all his milk again. Now he has changed again, he's eating so much more at meal times so he now has 8oz in the morning, breakfast, a mid morning snack, lunch a bit later and only 6oz at 2.30 and bedtime.

I hope this has helped, I was really worried about droppng his mid morning bottle, but it meant he drank more milk over all as he was really wanting the afternoon milk instead of just topping up all the time.

Flic - I'm doing purees and introduced finger foods as soon as I started purees. I didn't have the guts to do full BLW but really want her to be independent with food. All snacks, breakfast toast and fruit are finger foods. I plan to introduce more finger foods, as she's taken to self-feeding well.

Breakfast in the high chair is fine, but lunch isn't that good. That's when the distraction problem becomes more troublesome. I'm probably expecting too much too soon though, as its only been a short time since we started using the high chair regularly - maybe a couple of weeks? Christmas and New Year was in the middle of that, which disrupted things.

FC79 - Yes, that's helped a lot. R is just a week or so younger than your LO - I think we were in the third tri thread at the same time

My routine over the past couple of days has been turning out similar to yours:

She was only on 28oz a day before weaning so I'm managing to get about 20oz into her now.

I could do with aiming for 4.30pm for dinner, as if I'm late with dinner and it ends up at 5.30pm instead of 5pm then this seems to have a knock on effect on the bedtime bottle. This is the second day I've dropped her mid morning bottle. I was a bit nervous too. I was expecting her to let me know that she was hungry but she lasted until 12.30pm for lunch.

Good idea about increasing the amount in other bottles. She's waking earlier for her first feed of the day. She'll drain the night-feed bottle and pull on it for more so I could probably give her 8oz instead of 7oz.

Thank you ladies. By the sounds of it, I should prepare myself for more changes as soon as I get things sorted

The BLW mantra is 'Food is for fun until they're one'. Basically they can live on just milk until they're 1. Thinking about it like this is less stressful than thinking that they have to eat all the time and eat everything.

It did take a good couple of months to actually 'get' what food is about. Don't forget its completely different. They have to learn a whole new skill. Chewing and swallowing and moving food around.

The best bit of advice I got was don't worry about it. At 29 weeks she's not going to be putting full dinners away. Their stomachs are still small and so need food little and often.

If she's enjoying feeding herself then go with it. It all helps hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Just wait, she'll be picking bits of fluff up off the floor and eating it before you know it! The more tastes you can get her to try now the easier it will be later when she gets a mind of her own (like mine has!) and tells you that she doesn't want certain things!

My previous posts make me sound fraught! Flic, I'll be following the "don't worry about it" advice myself. Funny, I learned that lesson when she was 3 months old and I was trying to work out a feeding/sleeping routine. Another three months down the line, a reminder is useful, thank you

Re: self feeding - It is great to see them handling food and getting better and better at it. LOL at picking up fluff from the floor! Mmmm!

Hi Chillimint, I do remember you from 3rd tri! Can you believe how fast the time has gone? I definitely cant believe I've got a 7 month old baby already!

They do change all the time, just when you think you have a little routine sussed they change! My lo is a very greedy boy, he was on 40oz of formula a day at 16 weeks and that was with sleeping 12 hours at night so a lot to fit into a 12 hour day! I had to wean him early as he was wanting more and more but it wasnt satisfying him and he was starting to stop gaining weight. He is still really greedy now and amazes me the amount he can put away, dont know how Im going to fill him when he's on the move. He's not that big either, he just poo's 5 times a day!

Hi FC - blimey, that's a couple of pints of formula a day! I bet you always had a bottle on the go. And by the number of poo's you're getting, it sounds like its coming out as fast as its going in!

R has never had a massive appetite but what made me think she was taking an interest in food was that she'd watch intently when I ate. So I tried her on some tasters of food and started off slowly. I'm now thinking that her small-and-often appetite for milk is turning into a small-and-often appetite for food.

I tried an extra oz with her last night, upping her bottle to 8oz. That was plenty for her, she came off her bottle just before she'd drained it. She still woke at 2.30am for it though. Breakfast went well. Lunch was a few mouthfuls but I'm OK with that.

Being a mum is just fab. My DH is enjoying being a dad soooo much too. Time is going so fast and I'm in no rush for her to grow up. I swear it was just last week that I put away her 0-3 month clothes, I need to do the same with the 3-6 month clothes.

Hi Chillimint, we had a lovely first family christmas thanks. It was great to think it was only 2 years ago we were waiting to be referred for ivf and a family christmas was just a distant dream. Was your lo like mine and thought the lights and tinsel were amazing?!

Im in no hurry for him to grow up either, except to get onto his next carseat. Lugging him round in the baby one is back breaking! Only one more pound to go, then time can slow right down!

It is quite long but the general thing is that you should keep your LO's in a rear facing car seat for as long as possible as this is the safest. They should be sitting themselves and a lot stronger and able to hold their heads for longer periods of time.

It's not about the weight, most rear facing stage one seats hold LO up to 20 something lbs.

Thanks for that Flic. I would love to keep him in his baby carseat for longer but he's just too big! He is really uncomfortable in there now as he is wedged in and his feet hang off the end! He is 19lb now, I wouldnt move him til he reaches 20lb. He is a very strong boy too and has been sitting unaided for at least a month now. I am in no hurry for him to grow up, but he seems to disagree with me!

How old is he now? Take a look at the thread. The safety advice is rear facing for as log as possible. My LO was just under a year when we moved her.

Can you not take some of the padding out of the seat? Size wise as long as their head isn't off the end they're still ok to go in it. It doesn't matter about their feet. My LOs feet were hanging off for ages!

My LO was just the same. She was crammed in! She was on 98th centile and they thought I was weaning her and when I told them it was just milk they couldn't believe it! She takes after my DH.

The main thing is that his head doesn't hang over the top of the seat. Also if they're sat up in a car seat very young I think I read it can cause back problems which is why the first seats are reclined.

Car seats. Hmm, will read that one soon. DH thinks it might be nice for her to face forward and see where she's going...

FC - I thought that Christmas lights would be a big hit with R. DH spent ages buying hooks from B&Q, putting them up and hanging the lights tidily. Then she took one 10 sec glance at them LOL! She did find them gradually more interesting in the following days though.

Right, weaning. Well, no two days have been the same. No…I tell a lie, there has been one thing which has been rather consistent and that's R wanting a bottle in the mid afternoon.

At the start of the thread, I thought I had cracked breakfast but LO made a fibber out me. She slept through last night and because she didn't wake in the wee hours for a bottle, there was no way she would have 7oz bottle and a bowl of porridge for breakfast, even if we delayed porridge by an hour or so. So I went for porridge and a bit of milk for breakfast, then a few hours later, she wanted the rest of her milk. So, after me experimenting with dropping that mid-morning bottle, on that day, she needed a mid-morning bottle. At lunchtime, she wasn't all that hungry at so we had finger foods, pancakes and raisin bread with DH and I. It was lovely, all sat down eating together. And no-one got puree rubbed into their hair/clothes!

Just wondering Flic - do babies who are doing BLW eat much? I was just thinking that I try to measure what R eats in the numbers of ice cubes that she eats every day, but that's not possible if she's having finger foods. And I really can't see her eating, say, five "ice cubes worth" of finger foods at a meal. If I made all her finger foods the shape and size of an ice cube, my pancakes might be rather doughy!

You're right though, it is far less stressful thinking that milk will be OK. I'm coming round to that way of thinking now This last week, she's been letting me know that she wants a regular amount of milk. Nappies are the same as ever (not as many as FC gets though ), and there are plenty of wet ones. Previously, I was focusing on replacing milk with food, however, its milk that is the main source of nutrition. So I'll pay more attention to variety and tastes to food. She really pursed her lips when she ate a tart bit of plum today haha!

Nope, at the beginning BLW babies don't eat much at all. It's all about getting them to taste the food and learn how to chew it before they swallow. I spoon fed yoghurt to her to make sure that something was going in and so tht she associated sweet things at the end of a meal rather than just randomly.

We just pulled the high chair upto the table and all ate the same which I think encouraged her to copy us too.

With the car seat thing, yeah it is nice for them to see where they are going but I just didn't want to risk someone shunting us and damaging her neck while it was still so delicate. To me there's plety of time to put them in a forward facing car seat. They'll be facing forward in a cr seat until they're 12 years old. A little bit longer in a rear facing one for safety isn't going to make much of an impact on their happiness at seeing what's happening in front of them.

L is 26 weeks today and i was hoping to giver her finger foods but cos she has been on purres for 4 weeks i chickened out incase she wanted to swallow a big chunk! i have the net baby feeders but not sure its good practice to use them.

i've been going by what L wants for the past few weeks with regards to bottles ect but cos she was under 6 months i didn;t want her to drop her milk intake yet anyway. now she's 6 months i'll make sure she has the minimum but i've decided to just try and give solids more for the experience and taste ect than a 'meal' for now. its too stressful thinking of it interms of cutting milk feeds. i'll just keep reviewing what i'm doing every month or so....

when did u ladies start to give things like pasta and rice (adult stuff not baby rice or pasta). or if i was making say a pasta dish for dinner should i make baby pasta for L rather than ours (we use brown pasta too). the pasta in the supermarket says from 7 months anyway so thats what confused me about giving it yet......

re car seats - i agree Flic - defo better to keep rear facing for as long as poss. much much safer. the first car seats go up to about 26 lbs. i have a big baby too, L is 26 weeks and weighs just over 18lbs so technically could go forward facing in a pounds time but i'm keeping her rear facing for as long as i can.

in answer to my own question - brown rice and pasta are unsuitable for babies....or anything high fibre! does anyone know if white pasta and rice ok? i guess i would buy in the baby pasta for L but what if we were having a rice dish....is L ok to have our rice?

Boo boo. My LO has been on toast, pasta, rice (one grain at a time until Se realised that she could stuff a handful in!) since she was 6 months.

They need some roughage.

The reason pasta in supermarkets an on baby food says 7 months is because they are following a traditional stage weaning routine. I was giving O exactly the same food as DH and I from 6 months. From 6 months their bodies are capable of digesting food.

The stage weaning is the total opposite of BLW. It seems to be all about getting 3 meals per day into them rather than letting them experiment and learn and taste. BLW babies learn to chew before they swallow.

I couldn't be bothered with pureeing food and preparing and spending a fortune so I would just O some of whatever we had.

O's first food was chicken off a chicken leg. She sucked and gummed and loved it! Broccoli was another and carrots. She loves the stuff.

I didn't force her to eat anything I just left her to it. Now she eats until she's full. She will even turn down chocolate if she's not hungry!

The main thing is don't stress about it. The milk thing includes yoghurts and cheese etc.

I don't think R has learnt to chew and swallow yet, as she'll put the food in her mouth, bite off a piece and then do it again before she's chewed and swallowed the first bite. The excess either falls out her mouth or she gags on it and splutters it out. Is that the way it usually goes Flic? Its a bit scary! I wonder if me spoon feeding her is confusing for her though? Oooh booboo, you've got me thinking now.

I'd've thought that rice would be OK, as your L started off on rice herself. I'm no expert though!

Chillimint, that is exactly how it goes. It takes time for them to learn how to chew and then swallow. It is a bit scary at first but the more they do it the more they get the hang of it and then you'll be sat in a cafe with your friends while your LO eats some pasta and they'll all be amazed! I remember taking O out for Christmas dinner in 2010, she was 10 months. She was pulled up to the table, had a plate of turkey, cabbage, potato and other veg and everyone in the place was amazed at how she was wolfing it down! Corn on the cob is another favourite in our house too!

There is absolutely no reason not to give your LO's protein or chicken or bread etc. I think what is happening is that people are misinterpreting the information incorrectly. Firstly it depends how you are weaning as to when to give baby things, secondly, you do NOT have to follow the rules.

Their gag reflex is a lot further forward than ours. Its how they learn to move food around their mouths. Don't forget all they've known till now is milk.

I wouldn't say you're confusing her. I spoon fed yoghurt but BLW the rest of the stuff.

I do like the thought of BLW but my LO is not yet 6 months and i do have a premmie too.
I am more than happy for her to have finger food from 6 months.
For now i am sticking with purees. She has only just started on them as has been on milk mixes like rusk, rice and porridge.
It is so down to personal choice but it is always good to get advice from different people on how they weaned and were succesful. Flic it sounds like you LO was great with the BLW.

I am as I said a little over cautious. My baby is 5 months old and weighs 12lb. She was 10 weeks early. HV said she is the same as any baby her age for weaning, but obv she is a good deal smaller! BLW is from 6 months anyway isnt it?
For now Mi and I are doing really well with the weaning the way it is.
Come 6 months i would love to put broccoli florets and carrot sticks and strips of chicken, in a bowl for her to pick up and suck on.

I am using shop brought purees on some meals, just till the weekend, then the intention is to use my magimix to puree home cooked meals. I have tried a few home cooked bits but have a few jars left from last shop so want to get those out of the way first.

I have done this all before but times change. There was no BLW with my boys back in 10BC
I am all for change tho. I shall try and let Mi show me where to go from there. After all it is baby led

I imagine that before when you weaned you started at 4 months with puréed food and then built up on that.

By 6 months I bet your boys were on finger foods anyway. BLW just skips the bit before it!

The thing with weaning is its not really about getting 3 meals per day into them, it's about them learning about food and tastes and textures and new skills like chewing and sucking etc.

My mum thought I was going to kill O by doing BLw but when she saw her actually eating with us at the table at 6.5 months she thought it was amazing! People think I'm joking when I tell them that O was eating a chicken leg from 6 months!

Everyone was putting pressure on me to start weaning. It drove me mad. I even had a friend who wanted me to start at 12 weeks!!! Er...no! Because I was still broken from childbirth at 6 months sitting was uncomfortable, standing was uncomfortable, pureeing was not going to happen! Plus for me the way I saw it was 'this is my baby and I've been through crap to get her. None of you (my friends and family) are going to tell me how to bring her up. And I'm going to do somethig different from you all and prove you all wrong!'

Thanks Flic. And it sounds like your way worked just how you wanted it to. A few of my older relatives were dropping hints like "you'll be starting her on baby rice soon then" and the like when she was nearing 4 months.

I think I'll try meat soon, as I think R does better with sucking at food first. I bet DH didn't bargain on having to share his steak with the baby LOL!

The feeding routine has been steady these past few days. R is taking the same amount of milk each day and doesn't seem to be getting to the stage where she is famished. I've relaxed a bit now. I have noticed that finger foods are best after purees/mashed food, as she goes at them with gusto when she's hungry…but can't handle the amount she tears off.

Flic - I was giving my LO chicken legs from six months too - after two weeks of purees beforehand. I was amazed (and a little scared) at how well she managed it! Actually I was more nervous to give her bread then I was to give her large chunks of meat as bread can stick to the roof of your mouth.

I found that the reduction of milk happened naturally with her. I just let her dictate how much she wanted and pretty soon (about 6.5 months) I had dropped down to one bottle morning and night.

Wow, this thread has really taken off!
My lo is doing very well with traditional weaning, although I do let him have choices of finger foods for a snack time and he loves that.

I just give him whatever we are eating for dinner and take a portion out for him before any salt/stock or wine etc goes in. I give him lots of adult flavours tho as I think its really important, he has garlic, herbs, black pepper, the other day he loved salmon that was cooked with lemon juice and white wine vinegar! There is nothing he hasnt liked so far and he's getting really good with lumpier foods and chews really well. he does enjoy his finger foods too tho, his favourites at the moment are ryvitas and pieces of satsuma.

Jayden is in full flow weaning and he is taking to it really well so far...would like to start him on some finger foods but have no idea wot foods are best to start with....any suggestions would be great? x

Lisa Lou
ME: 30, PCOS
DH: 32, Low Count

1st ICSI: BFP miscarriage @ 9 weeks
2 natural BFP both lost @ 8 weeks

March 11 FET: Beautiful BFP!! Baby Jayden arrived safe and sound on 29/12/2011, he is perfect!!
December 2012 shock natural BFP!! Baby Shay arrived quickly on 28/07/2013, he is gorgeous!!